The New 52 general discussion
- Thread starter ProjectX2
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Zombipanda
My Boom-Boom's mostly gay
YES! These may just be my favorite two books of the relaunch.
I love Animal Man and, to a lesser extent, Swamp Thing... but they both feel very much in the tone of the old Vertigo stuff while both Batwoman and Wonder Woman manage to catch something fresh we don't see in mainstream comics very much. Batwoman in particular kind of reminds me of Starman in terms of the character and world building.
E said:
Thanks for ruining it!
I thought the first issue was just dreadful, but maybe I'll catch up. I was meaning to read through all the books after five or six issues and see how they stack up.
ProjectX2
Don't expect me to take you with me when I go to s
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I'm enjoying Wonder Woman (though I missed Cliff Chiang on the latest issue) but I'm loving Batwoman and it's my favourite of the new 52 alongside Animal Man and Swamp Thing. I hope the quality doesn't slip with the new artist.
Friday
Well-Known Member
Its OK. The writer is obviously having fun so thats cool. I wouldn't buy it but since my roomate does I still read it.
Wonder Woman is quite good but something occured to me while reading it this week. Its just begging for John Constantine to show up. Its set in London, its dealing with gods and monsters, Azzarello even did a run on Hellblazer that was pretty good.
Zombipanda
My Boom-Boom's mostly gay
Read Suicide Squad. It gets a lot better after the first issue, but it's still not very good. The bit with Captain Boomerang was kind of clever though.
Oh great. Now people are going to be shipping Diana and John. Thanks, bro!
Oh great. Now people are going to be shipping Diana and John. Thanks, bro!
shadowraiden115
Active Member
Im collecting Green lantern and justice league, so far im incredibly impressed With geoff John's work but lets be honest, jl #5 sorta sucked. I mean, i liked most of it but Batman just revealing his identity to Hal was gay
Zombipanda
My Boom-Boom's mostly gay
I too was disappointed with the homo-erotic subtext of Jizz Lads 5.
The title was very misleading.
Friday
Well-Known Member
Well the gay dollar is so strong right now I don't blame DC for chasing it.
shadowraiden115
Active Member
Which is why I made a green lantern thread
Zombipanda
My Boom-Boom's mostly gay
Well, it seems to me that, in the past at least, attempts to branch off topics on individual DC books haven't really stuck, because there's just not much discourse on most of their books. There are some exceptions, but in general, the Marvel title threads are much livelier.
Maybe we should branch out threads devoted to the new 52's sub-imprints (Batman, Young Justice, The Edge, etc.) rather than individual books?
shadowraiden115
Active Member
Thats why i made a green lantern thread
Zombipanda
My Boom-Boom's mostly gay
hey did you guys know that shadowraiden115 started a green lantern thread
Zombipanda
My Boom-Boom's mostly gay
So, I don't think Aquaman deserves its own thread so I'll post it here...
Does anyone else think this series is just plain bad? And it's a pity, because the premise is strong. "Aquaman protects the surface world from the threats of the ocean depths". Given how overexposed space is, the ocean is basically the last vestige we have as far as terror of the unknown goes. This could be a fantastic superhero horror book and the pitch for the first storyline was quintessentially Lovecraftian. "Alien fishmen attack New Hampshire village". It's just too perfect. Part of the problem is Johns' obsession with beating us over the head with what an "underdog" Aquaman is. We have all these talking heads going on about how he's a poor man's Superman and, well, Jeffy doesn't really do anything to dissuade that notion. he just plain doesn't understand suspense. And Admiral Ackbarman doesn't do anything Superman couldn't do. He doesn't distinguish himself at all as a character except being an uninteresting douchebag with a chip on his shoulder, and the whole "flashback to father spinning homespun witticisms" is not just overplayed (and let's face it, not that interesting to begin with), it's totally a rehash of the Superman formula.
But that's not even the real problem. The problem is there's no real sense of horror. Not in the writing and not in the art, which fails to convey any of the sense of the surreality and scope of the setting. This is vast, untamed wilderness, the final frontier populated by creatures with incomprehensible agendas and ancient empires that have existed alongside human civilization without our knowledge. That's a huge well of untapped potential. Instead, we get tired phoned-in, tired sci-fi tropes: the hive civilization living to sustain its queen and militant spacemen in generic syfy ships. There's no sense of wonder or dread and I'm just left with a complete sense of disinterest. I think its a testament to the individual skills of the artistic teams that Wonder Woman manages to convey both a grand sense of terror and a dense growth of mythology with a milieu that's been played to death for centuries while Aquaman falls flat exploring largely untapped frontiers.
Do I feel a hypothetical pitch thread coming on? I think I do....
You mean Mz. Simone's Dragonball Z looking villain? I don't know... That concept kind of left me cold. Still, the thought of a homonculus/golem style creation that mimics Wonder Woman, given the new spin on her origins, could possibly be interesting.
Does anyone else think this series is just plain bad? And it's a pity, because the premise is strong. "Aquaman protects the surface world from the threats of the ocean depths". Given how overexposed space is, the ocean is basically the last vestige we have as far as terror of the unknown goes. This could be a fantastic superhero horror book and the pitch for the first storyline was quintessentially Lovecraftian. "Alien fishmen attack New Hampshire village". It's just too perfect. Part of the problem is Johns' obsession with beating us over the head with what an "underdog" Aquaman is. We have all these talking heads going on about how he's a poor man's Superman and, well, Jeffy doesn't really do anything to dissuade that notion. he just plain doesn't understand suspense. And Admiral Ackbarman doesn't do anything Superman couldn't do. He doesn't distinguish himself at all as a character except being an uninteresting douchebag with a chip on his shoulder, and the whole "flashback to father spinning homespun witticisms" is not just overplayed (and let's face it, not that interesting to begin with), it's totally a rehash of the Superman formula.
But that's not even the real problem. The problem is there's no real sense of horror. Not in the writing and not in the art, which fails to convey any of the sense of the surreality and scope of the setting. This is vast, untamed wilderness, the final frontier populated by creatures with incomprehensible agendas and ancient empires that have existed alongside human civilization without our knowledge. That's a huge well of untapped potential. Instead, we get tired phoned-in, tired sci-fi tropes: the hive civilization living to sustain its queen and militant spacemen in generic syfy ships. There's no sense of wonder or dread and I'm just left with a complete sense of disinterest. I think its a testament to the individual skills of the artistic teams that Wonder Woman manages to convey both a grand sense of terror and a dense growth of mythology with a milieu that's been played to death for centuries while Aquaman falls flat exploring largely untapped frontiers.
Do I feel a hypothetical pitch thread coming on? I think I do....
Jaggyd said:
You mean Mz. Simone's Dragonball Z looking villain? I don't know... That concept kind of left me cold. Still, the thought of a homonculus/golem style creation that mimics Wonder Woman, given the new spin on her origins, could possibly be interesting.
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Zombipanda
My Boom-Boom's mostly gay
And let's be honest this whole universal "Aquaman is stupid" **** really doesn't make sense for the setting, does it?
Here we have a world where superhumans are a new and terrifying thing. Hell, it's the centerpiece of Johns' other flagship, Justice League (another book I have issues with). This is a normal world where there are suddenly people who can fly, lift trucks, and shoot laser beams from their eyes. It's one of the most fundamentally revolutionary shifts in human society. At the same time, it's not like they're running around on every street corner. I doubt there's many folks flying around quiet New England hamlets. So when this guy shows up leaping tall buildings, commanding armies of whales and sharks, and punching pirahna men in the face (accompanied by a woman who slings water around like she's the entire effects crew for the Pink Floyd laser light show) are the slack jawed yokels really going to respond with this blaise attitude of "Hah! Aquaman! Silly!"? And when he claims to be the King of Atlantis, is the response really going to be "Atlantis? What a stupid thought!"?
I don't know. I just don't buy that conceit.
Here we have a world where superhumans are a new and terrifying thing. Hell, it's the centerpiece of Johns' other flagship, Justice League (another book I have issues with). This is a normal world where there are suddenly people who can fly, lift trucks, and shoot laser beams from their eyes. It's one of the most fundamentally revolutionary shifts in human society. At the same time, it's not like they're running around on every street corner. I doubt there's many folks flying around quiet New England hamlets. So when this guy shows up leaping tall buildings, commanding armies of whales and sharks, and punching pirahna men in the face (accompanied by a woman who slings water around like she's the entire effects crew for the Pink Floyd laser light show) are the slack jawed yokels really going to respond with this blaise attitude of "Hah! Aquaman! Silly!"? And when he claims to be the King of Atlantis, is the response really going to be "Atlantis? What a stupid thought!"?
I don't know. I just don't buy that conceit.
Zombipanda said:
Maybe they thought they had enough of that in Animal Man and Swamp Thing? It is an interesting idea though.
Zombipanda said:
I don think I realized it before you said it here but I think you're right. It's one of the problems I had with Blackest Night.
